The country of India is home to over 300 languages. At the time of
its independence, Hindi was deemed the main language and English as
its second. According to a 1997 survey, 66% of Indians speak Hindi
and 77% of them regard it as the national language culturally
speaking. The Indian government recognizes at least 18 languages, not
including dialects.

Each region in India has its own native language. Within each
region, dialects of that language have developed such as Punjabi, the
language spoken in the Punjabi region. The region of Punjab is large
in size and has six major dialects: Majhi (spoken in the heart of the
Punjab region), Malwi, Doabi, Potohari, Jhangvi, and Multani. As with
the Urdu language famously used as a form of poetry and as the
official language of Pakistan, Punjabi dialects are written with an
Arabian influence. Pakistani Muslims use this dialect as well as
their official language.

Sanskrit is the basis for most Indo-European language. In India,
this language is the ancestor to Hindi. The Dravidian, Turkish,
Farsi, Arabic, Portugese, and English languages have influenced Hindi
over the years. In literature, several dialects of Hindi have been
used. The dialect of Braj was popular up until the 19th century where
it was replaced by Khari Boli.

The Urdu language is mostly an oral language rather than a written
one. It is a language associated with a form of Indian poetry known
as Urdu poetry. Over the years, it has absorbed elements of Persian
and Arabic writing. Before the Indian partition of 1947, the Urdu
language had close relations with Hindi, but afterwards it became
separate. The British used the Urdu language as a means to divide the
Muslims and Hindus in the years before the partition. The Urdu
language first developed in northern India as a result of cultural
diffusion between the native Northern Indians and invading Muslims
from Central Asia during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The
first Urdu poet was Quili Qutub Shah (1565-1611) when he wrote a
volume of poetry written in a language that would later be known as
Urdu. After Shah came several others who formed the styles of poetry
that could be written in Mrdu, Mir Taqi Mir (1722-1810) and Asadullah
Khan Ghalib (1797-1869) formed the ghazal (love lyric). Mirza
Mohammad Rafi Sauda (1713-1780) developed the qasida (panegyric), Mir
Hasan developed the mathnawi (romance) and Mir Babr Ali Anis
(1802-1874) and Mirza Salamat Dabir (1803-1875) developed the
marthiya (elegy). Mohammed Iqbal (1877-1938) was the most famous of
the Urdu poets for his work reflected a philosophical point of view
while maintaining a literary excellence. During the 1930's, Urdu
poetry was seen as a way to express a new world order and vision for
the nationalist movement. The writers who were nationalist rebels
were klnown as Progressive Writers. The progressive writers infused
their literature with themes of class struggle, scenes reflecting a
more "modern" view of the world and a complete removal of traditional
ideas. After the partition, Urdu writers looked back to the original
writers and combined the old style with the Indian form of western
literature.

Bibliography:

Hindi: The language of Songs.
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/hindiint.html

India Today State of the Nation August 18, 1997.
www.india-today.com/itgroup/biz.html